Australian Open 2025: Why Jannik Sinner-Alexander Zverev men's singles final is a highly-controversial affair

The 2025 Australian Open has reached its business end with just one final battle left to take place – the men’s singles final between defending champion Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev. Unlike the women’s singles final that took place on Saturday, in which a 14th-ranked Madison Keys stunned both Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka – the top-ranked women in the tennis world – en route to her maiden Grand Slam victory, the Sinner vs Zverev showdown is literally a battle between the ATP No 1 and No 2.

While Sinner had defeated USA’s Ben Shelton 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-2 in the semi-finals, dominating the second and third sets after the first one went into a tie-break, Zverev’s much-anticipated last-4 battle against Novak Djokovic ended after he took the first set 7-6 (7-5).

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Djokovic’s hopes of a record-extending 11th Australian Open title as well as a historic 25th Grand Slam went up in smoke as the 37-year-old due to a left leg injury, which had earlier bothered him during his epic quarter-final victory over Carlos Alcaraz.

While Sinner will be aiming to successfully defend his Australian Open title and take his Grand Slam title count to three, having emerged triumphant in last year’s US Open as well, 27-year-old Zverev will be hoping to end his long wait for his first-ever triumph in a Major, with the German having previously finished runner-up at the 2020 US Open and last year’s French Open.

The Sinner-Zverev contest, however, is also making headlines for the wrong reasons.

While the Australian Open men’s singles final between Sinner and Zverev is controversial?

For some in the tennis world – former players and other experts as well as fans – neither player should have been on the court competing in one of the biggest matches in the world of tennis.

Sinner’s defence of his Australian Open title, for one, has been overshadowed by the doping scandal in tennis which involved the Italian as well as Poland’s Swiatek – who are among the biggest names in the current generation of tennis stars.

Sinner had failed not one but two drug tests in March last year after a banned steroid clostebol was detected in his system. The 23-year-old, claimed innocence in the matter and his explanation of the drug entering his system through a spray used to treat a cut was accepted by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) .

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) however, had appealed against the ITIA’s clearance to Sinner, which has resulted in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) setting 16 and 17 April as the date for Sinner's hearing on allegations of doping .

Zverev, meanwhile, has been accused of assault by his former partners Olga Sharypova and Brenda Patea, the latter happening to be the mother of his young child. Former tennis player Sharypova first brought the allegations to light in an Instagram post in October 2020, and would later claim that she was assaulted by ‘Sasha’ days before the 2019 US Open.

In a separate interview that was published the following year, Sharypova claimed she was also attacked at the Laver Cup months after the New York incident.

Patea, meanwhile, claimed that Zverev had pushed her against the wall and strangled her with both hands after a “heated argument” in May 2020.

Zverev, howeved, denied allegations from Sharypova as well as Patea and had reached a settlement with both without ever acknowledging guilt.

Whoever wins Sunday’s battle at the Rod Laver Arena, chances are they might not be cheered by the crowd as loudly as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the latter having won the 2022 edition, with Djokovic also copping a fair amount of boos in Melbourne of late.